Efforts to understand, improve, or do less harm to the world around me.

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Sunday, May 09, 2010

Bad organizations

If you work for a company or run one that sounds like this, be wary.

The butts-in-seats method means that when a company starts like holding you strictly to time cards, they are demonstrating a powerlessness to determine your actual worth. Bad indicators like this suggest an artificial organizational structure and definitely not a meritocracy. Showing up on time in this organization is therefore far more important than providing value to the company.

Appearances are everything, which is similar to butts-in-seats, a dress code means appearing to be a good worker means you are a good worker. A strict dress code is all the more painfully false.

Must use the "maybe" requirement means you're never allowed to say "no" or "I don't know" to your boss, which is considered defiance or stupidity.

Tacitly encouraged to slow innovation means make sure that breakthroughs are gradual and continuous -- you are not rewarded for one gigantic win and then 100 little ones. Better to have 50 medium successes to illustrate yourself as a continuous producer. This may be why diseases are no longer cured, only managed and why small out-of-someones-garage companies are so important. Also the "what have you done for me lately" problem.

Power to the manager involves extremely relative metrics for success that empower managers to continue asking for more from their employees, without rewarding them for real work.

The police method means having impossible metrics available so you can always justify a firing. Similar to how a good cop can always come up with a reason to arrest you.